Sunday, April 24, 2011

Quick Tip: WoLK Enchanting Materials



If your server is like mine, finding Infinite Dust and Greater Cosmic Essence can be a real pain. The AH prices of Infinite Dust are 6g-8g each and GCEs are going for 15g and up. Sometimes one can find WoLK greens for cheap enough to buy and DE for your own materials but just about everyone is onto this tip, so it is hit or miss. Mainly miss for me lately.

I found that the most economical way to make something to "farm" and DE for my own Infinite Dust and GCE is Shadowmight Ring. It is a L162 ring that DEs into 4-10 Dust (75%) or 1-3 GCE (20%). There is a 5% chance for a Dream Shard.




Materials are 1 each Eternal Earth and Eternal Shadow. The recipe is taught by any JC trainer at skill level 390. 

On my server, the Eternal Earth go for about 9g and the Shadow for about 17g. If you buy them at these prices the margins are close to break even, but can be a fall back method for making your own mats if the AH is either sold out or too expensive. 

Today, I still came out ahead. I buy Earths and Shadows any time I see them at a good price. I bought 45 Earth today for 3g each and 80 Shadow for 7g-9g each. 

I made and DE'd 45 Shadowmight Rings and received: 238 Infinite Dust, 18 GCE and 1 Dream Shard.

From an availability standpoint this option worked great. I couldn't find any GCE in the AH and I needed 15 for crafting scrolls for resale. The Infinite Dust in the AH was very pricey at the time, and limited--only 5 stacks at 140g per stack. 

From a pure gold earning standpoint this would be a very profitable effort as well. My initial investment was 495g (45 Earth at 3g each--135g--and 45 Shadow at 8g each--360g). At market price of 6g, the 238 Infinite Dust would be worth 1,428g. The GCE would be worth 234g at the usual price of 13g each. 

That would have been 1,167g profit for about 5 minutes work. [((1,428+234)-495) = 1,167].

So whether you need a way to generate Infinite Dust and GCE for your WoLK recipes, or you need a good way to earn some gold by making and re-listing these materials, the Shadowmight Ring might be a good option for you. Buy the materials for the right price and the profits are decent. Even at market rates you can keep your business going if the WoLK mats are in short supply.

12 comments:

  1. dont forget about trading frozen orbs for eternals, which can go for as little as 3g on my server.

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  2. I think the actual DE values for Shadowmight Ring are 75% 4-7 Dust, 20% 1-2 Essence, 5% Shard. The DE percentages on Wowhead have skewed since many guilds have attained Bountiful Bags, which have a 15% chance to give you more materials.

    My personal method for Infinite Dust uses Borean Leather to craft Arctic Boots, which has a 75% chance to DE into 2-3 Dust. I buy all BL at/below .50g, which sets a 4g cost to craft & a 1.6g average DE Dust value. Infinite dust normally sells for 2.75g on my server, so it's a decent buy for me, especially if BB procs.

    I think I chose this route because BL prices are very steady on my server, while eternal prices are very erratic.

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  3. The best way to get WotLK enchanting materials? Abyssal Shatter, definitely. The crystals can usually be found for around 5-15g each... if you don't have a huge stockpile from the final days of WotLK, that is.

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  4. @ Two-slot: thanks, good reminder. Much more expensive on my server, but worth noting.

    @ Sendekyo: Not sure about whether the Wowhead stats are skewed or not; my results were pretty close to what they posted. I averaged 7 Inf Dusts and a few 10s popped.

    Borean Leather is a great tool when it is priced right--as in your example. I haven't had much luck finding it below 1g ea and usually in the 1.5g range.

    You are right--Eternal prices are erratic. I only wanted to post this because I rediscovered it when I had few other options.

    @ Vayaz: Super tip on the Abyssal Shatter. For my server, I seldom see an Abyss Crystal below 30g. I have notices set up to buy any below that price. My WoLK stockpile is long since gone.

    The upside is that the prices for the WoLK scrolls are great right now. I'm getting 800g for Berserking, 650g for 2H Staff-Spellpower, 750g for 2H Agility, etc.

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  5. I often find helpful hints from goldblogger sites. But then there are times that I scratch my head, and wonder...why?

    Why would you advise someone to make a ring using 1 inexpensive eternal earth and 1 expensive eternal shadow...when you can make one just using 2x eternal earths?

    Better yet, if bloodstones / huge citrines are cheap, you can use one of those and 2x crystallized earths to make craftable DEing as well. Granted the time to DE those might not be worth your time, but in terms of profiablity it is often better than using 2x eternal earths.

    You would be better off selling those eternal shadows as is.

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  6. @Anonymous,

    For what it's worth, my only source so far have been the Abyssal Shatter and de-ing the four common gem jewelry items (Bloodstone, Chalcedony, Huge Citrine, Sun Crystal) that you also mentioned.

    The jewelry is very time consuming as they yield only 1.5 dusts per item, but also most cost effective on my server.

    Abyssal Shatter is good but yields "too many" essences (I'm always missing dusts). Also, supply at an acceptable price (they're mostly posted above market value) is not enough since I also need the crystals as materials.

    To my point though, I didn't know about this ring and still have a pile of Eternal Shadows, but if this hadn't been posted I wouldn't have found out about the Stoneguard Band that you just mentioned.

    Thanks to all for the advice, I've been struggling with these Wrath mats for my enchants!

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  7. @ Anon: Good point. I honestly didn't know about that ring--I powerleveled my JC right at the end of WoLK and I guess I didn't train that pattern. I'm going back now to make sure I didn't miss any others.

    In this instance it wouldn't have mattered anyway--there were only 45 Earth's available so that would have been 22 rings vs. the 45 I made using Shadows too.

    I guess the point is that I needed to make some scrolls and there were no mats anywhere. My usual means to access Dust and GCE were tapped out. I had to find another way to "farm" my own skills and found this pattern.

    It gave me great returns and was the most cost effective way I could find at that time. My cloth, leather and plate methods were more cost effective.

    IMO the value of the gold blogs is NOT that someone writes about super secret great ways to make gold so readers will become enlightened--it is more that a dialogue begins wherein authors and readers can explore ideas.

    All ideas aren't going to work, and almost none work on every server. Tonight you reminded me to review my patterns to see if I missed any other patterns.

    Thanks for reading, and for the comments.

    @ Jael: I feel your pain. I was in exactly that position when I found the ring above. My usual method to craft is: AH if prices are good; make myself if prices and time are reasonable; buy and DE if prices are good; farm as a last resort.

    I was down to farming when I 'discovered' that ring so it worked out great for me.

    I'm glad this post gave you some ideas--both in the original content and the comments from readers.

    Happy crafting, and thanks for taking time to comment! Makes it all worthwhile.

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  8. NOTE: TYPO ABOVE.

    Sentence should read "My cloth, leather and plate methods were NOT more cost effective".

    Sorry, hope that is clear.

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  9. I see. Well I'm happy that you have discovered a few more profitable ways to get the dusts / essences you need.

    I admit that I often gather ideas from gold bloggers and readers comments. I am less forthcoming because I know that many, like myself, are reading here. In fact, the last time that I mentioned one of my markets, I had an influx of competitors for a couple months.

    All of the items in these comments are things that I have been buying cheaply for the last few months. I am sure that other readers have been, too. But you can be sure that in the next few weeks everyone and their uncle will be joining in.

    So my best advice to anyone making gold is wait it out. In time, people leave. Just as my competitors did this past weekend, letting me dumb my entire stock at really good prices.

    And Kammler, your best tip has been to review your patterns. If I could whisper you, I could show you several things that people forget about. But if I say it here, then I'll be shut out of markets for two months again. Review "all" of your patterns.

    Cheers

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  10. Sure, I understand.

    And you can always "wsp" me via email to kammlerskorner@gmail.com

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  11. I will have to look at this method in the future for dust. As a couple of others mentioned, I typically craft the bloodstone, chalc, citrine jewelry with crystallzied earth x2. The mats are definitely less than you are receiving but I am getting 5 items to DE to your one (using Eternal Earth alone). I buy the gems for less than 1g each, and craft and DE tons of them. The downside is the amount of time it takes.

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  12. @ Azz: good point. To me, the value of knowledge is being able to respond when circumstances change.

    I have crafted and DE'd the bloodstone, chalc and citrine jewelry too. When supplies of the stones are low or cost prohibitive I like having a back up plan.

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